Under Article II the president generally controls executive officers, but Congress can attach for-cause protection to officers in independent regulatory agencies. The default rule -- set by Myers v. United States (1926) -- is at-will removal for executive officers. The exception -- carved out in Humphrey Executor v. United States (1935) -- allows for-cause protection for multimember commissions exercising quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions.
The Supreme Court has narrowed the exception. In Seila Law v. CFPB (2020) and Collins v. Yellen (2021) the Court struck down for-cause protection for single-director agencies, holding the president must be able to remove principal officers heading executive agencies. The CDC director, by statute, has no for-cause protection and serves at the HHS Secretary pleasure -- which is why Susan Monarez could be fired 29 days into a Senate-confirmed term in August 2025 without legal recourse.
The distinction matters because for-cause protection is the most common congressional tool for forcing technical or scientific independence into executive-branch decisions, and Supreme Court doctrine has been steadily eroding which positions can carry it.
Whether the people who run vaccine policy, banking regulation, or election oversight can be fired by the White House on any given Tuesday is one of the most consequential structural questions in U.S. government.
People often think Senate-confirmed officials cannot be fired without Senate approval. They can -- unless Congress wrote for-cause protection into the statute creating the office, removal still flows from the president or the cabinet secretary above them.
Whether the people who run vaccine policy, banking regulation, or election oversight can be fired by the White House on any given Tuesday is one of the most consequential structural questions in U.S. government.
People often think Senate-confirmed officials cannot be fired without Senate approval. They can -- unless Congress wrote for-cause protection into the statute creating the office, removal still flows from the president or the cabinet secretary above them.